Donington Park

Donington Park Circuit

Address: Donington Park Racing Ltd Castle Donington Derby DE74 2RP
Castle Donington , Leicestershire , England
Route type:	permanent race track
Opening:	May 25, 1931
Formula 1 venue :	1993
Decommissioned:	1939-1977
Grand Prix track
Route data
Important events:	BTCC , WTCC , FIA GT1 World Championship , Superbike World Championship
Route length:	4.023  km (2.5  mi )
Curves:	12
Records
Track record: (Formula 1)	1: 18.029 min. ( Ayrton Senna , McLaren-Ford , 1993)
Track record: (motorcycle)	1: 28.714 min. ( Dani Pedrosa , Honda RC211V , 2006)
Short haul
Route data
Important events:	BTCC , WTCC , FIA GT1 World Championship , Superbike World Championship
Route length:	4.023  km (2.5  mi )
Curves:	12
http://www.donington-park.co.uk/

Coordinates: 52 ° 49 ′ 50 "  N , 1 ° 22 ′ 31"  W.

The Donington Park Circuit is a motorsport race track in England . It is not far from Castle Donington in Leicestershire and adjacent to East Midlands Airport . The next big city is Birmingham .

The track is the scene of many motorsport races and music festivals. Among other things, the Monsters of Rock Festival took place there 15 times between 1980 and 1996 (now: Download Festival ), and in 2002 the Ozzfest tour performed. In 1993, Formula 1 also made a guest appearance in Donington Park. The Donington Grand Prix Collection , a museum with the world's largest collection of Grand Prix racing cars , has been part of the track since 1973 .

history

Track layout

The circuit was opened in 1931. At that time the course had a route length of 3.525 km. In 1934 an additional hairpin was built behind the Redgate; the new route length was 4.104 km. Melbourne Corner was built in 1937, which led to the new route length of 5.029 km. In 1977 a new line shortened it to 3.150 km. In 1985 the new Melbourne hairpin was built and led to the current route length of 4.023 km. For the return of Formula 1 in 2010, another renovation was planned. The route should be extended by around 800 meters by an additional loop in front of the start / finish area. In addition, the start-finish straight should be relocated to the “Starkey's Straight”. For better overtaking opportunities, the “Esses” curve should be shortened so that you can enter the “Melbourne Hairpin” faster. However, this variant was never built.

• 

  Route
  1937–1939

• 

  Routing
  from 1985

• 

  Route
  originally planned from 2010

Racing events

Racing scene at the exit of the hairpin "Melbourne"

In 1993 , the European Grand Prix was the first and so far the last Formula 1 Grand Prix in Donington. The rain race is still considered by experts to be the best performance of former world champion Ayrton Senna , who died in 1994, who dominated and won his opponents at will on the hilly track in an inferior car.

British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and British Formula 3 Championship races are currently held on the track .

From 1987 to 2009 the Grand Prix of Great Britain of the motorcycle world championship took place there, which has taken place again since 2010 on the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire. In 2015 another Great Britain Grand Prix is ​​to take place in Donington, as the Circuit of Wales provided for in the contract may not be completed by then.

From the 2010 Formula 1 season , the Donington Park Circuit was to become the venue for the British Grand Prix, replacing the traditional Silverstone circuit as the host of the British Grand Prix. The agreed FIA , FOA and the track operators of the Donington Park Circuit. Due to financial difficulties of the operating company, however, the contract was terminated by the FOA.

Formula E has been testing in Donington since the 2014/2015 season .

statistics

Lap records

formula 1

• Qualification: 1: 10.458 min ( Alain Prost , Williams-Renault, 1993)
• Race: 1: 18.029 min ( Ayrton Senna , McLaren-Ford, 1993)

MotoGP class

• Qualification: 1: 27.676 min ( Dani Pedrosa , Repsol Honda, 2006)
• Race: 1: 28.714 min (Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda, 2006)

Formula E.

• Test drives: 1: 29.920 min ( Lucas di Grassi , Abt Schaeffler FE01, 2015)

All winners of Formula 1 races in Donington Park

No.	year	driver	constructor	engine	tires	time	Route length	Round	Ø pace	date	GP of
1	1993	Ayrton Senna	McLaren	ford	G	1: 50: 46.570 h	4.023 km	76	165.603 km / h	Apr 11	Europe

Web links

Commons : Donington Park  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Donington Park Official Website
• Donington Grand Prix Collection ( Memento from September 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - Museum with the world's largest collection of Grand Prix racing cars (English)
• Donington Park Master Plan ( Memento from February 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - conversion plan with new routing as PDF (English; 838 kB)
• Download Festival - Download Festival

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: Official: MotoGP from 2010 in Silverstone . Motorsport-Total.com, January 12, 2009
2. ↑ Great Britain GP moves . Sport1.de, September 2, 2014.
3. ^ British Grand Prix at Donington Park from 2010 . Formula1.com, July 4, 2008 (English)
4. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: Donington now officially out of the race . Motorsport-Total.com, October 26, 2009